Wrasse or Razorfish?

Posted October 14th, 2010 by Carol202

Images:

I encountered something new today, probably because they are small and blend into the background. There were two of these fish slowly swimming over a small section of the reef. They usually stayed about 2 to 6 inches above the artificial reef and drifted back and forth between stalks of hydroids, algae, etc. They were about 1 inch long and were found in the northern Gulf of Mexico in about 60 feet of water. The closest ID I could make is a juvenile green wrasse, but the pectoral fins don't look right at all, and there is hardly in pigmentation in the dorsal fin except for a little on the ribs. Any help will be appreciated.

At first I went outside the box and thought maybe juvi of one of the small Sea basses??? but the dorsal fin although it seems spiny in the front doesn't have the undulation of these it seems more straight across the top. And I didn't find any wrasse juvi's that jumped out at me. but how about this: Look in the CD at Redband Parrotfish click on the pictures and look at the one of the last pics the one that shows a baby photographed from the top and has an insert. On the insert the dorsal fin looks very much like yours, with the fist two spine membranes opaque and the rest clear. It's a guess, I'm not 100% sure.

Yes, it is very similar to the Redband Parrotfish, but the eye doesn't look right to me. I just posted a fifth photo of a similar fish we saw the next day. There was a larger fish that looked like number 14 of 16 of the green razorfish, but it swam off before I could get a photo. It was with the fish in photo number 5.

Baby parrotfishes of Sparisoma mostly look alike, and there are a number of species. This is one of them- probably whichever Sparisoma is common in the area. Down in the Caribbean it would most likely be a redband or yellowtail.

Consensus is a parrotfish, probably redband. They are rarely reported in our zone (2101), but there are a few reports, and after seeing other juveniles that were out of place in our area, it is possible. I've never seen an adult parrotfish this far north, so if these are juvenile parrotfishes I doubt they will make it through the winter.